publicly ridiculous. The Catholic Committee gave him 2,000 guineas, sent him about his business, and resumed the management of their own affairs. The present Bill being now likely to be passed, as a complete settlement of the Catholic question, the revolutionary factions of both creeds were earnest to show that it would be no settlement at all, to frighten the House into rejecting it, and so to leave the sore open. Mr. O'Neil presented a petition from the Belfast Presbyterians for the complete removal of all Catholic disabilities. The Catholic Committee in Dublin drew a similar one of their own, which, with an evident slight to Burke, they intrusted to Egan. The Belfast petition was rejected on the motion of Mr. Latouche, the House refusing to receive it. They had consented against their own judgment to accept Langrishe's Bill, but "the alarm being still universal that Government had ulterior views," they desired to mark emphatically that they would go no farther.1 On whether the Catholic petition should be received there was a sharp

are hardly credible. This composition was shown to Egan, Curran, and Grattan, who were inclined to support it, but they struck out some objectionable words. They must be pretty strong that this trio would object to. Mr. Burke would not permit an iota to be altered. Of course these gentlemen declined to present it. Burke proposed sending a challenge to Egan for his refusal, upon pretence that he had promised. Mr. O'Hara was next pitched upon. He begged leave to read it, but Burke would not consent to that, and O'Hara agreed. Upon what passed in the House of Commons, Burke called a meeting of his committee, to verify their signatures before Mr. O'Hara. They wished to alter the objectionable parts of the petition. Burke would not consent. The Catholics refused to acknowledge their signatures, and the Catholics and Burke parted with mutual criminations. We have heard no more of the petition; so whether it will be presented or not seems doubtful. I am in hopes this republican and factious committee, a species of Parliament most excessively dangerous, will now lose their consequence. An advantage already derived is the universal dislike to the levelling spirit, and the ruin of Napper Tandy and his associates. Westmoreland to Dundas, January 28." — -S. P. O. 1 "Westmoreland to Dundas, February 13." - S. P. O.

be

debate, the supporters of the Catholic clauses insisting on being heard. Prominent among their champions was Colonel Hutchinson, the Provost's son,1 who inherited his father's eloquence without his shrewdness. He talked the Liberal cant of the day, which may compared instructively with the modern Papal syllabus. The sentiments of mankind on religion, he said, were altogether changed. The spirit of Romanism was softened, the influence of the Pope was feeble as the decrepit hand which wielded it. Catholics loved liberty as much as Protestants, and would cease to be bigots when the Protestants ceased to be perse

cutors.

In the same spirit George Ponsonby maintained that modern enlightenment had exploded the old superstitions. Mankind were now content with the great truths of the Gospel, unperplexed with the mystic jargon of school theology. Religious mysteries had fallen into the contempt which they deserved, and it would be the fault of the Legislature if by submitting to threadbare prejudice they allowed the public mind to be again disturbed by such "despicable nonsense."

Francis Hutchinson, the Provost's second son, soared into nationalist rhetoric. "When the pride of Britain was humbled in the dust," he said, "her enemies led captive, the brightest jewel of the Imperial crown torn from her diadem, at the moment when the combined fleets of the two great Catholic powers of Europe threatened a descent upon our coasts, from whom did we derive our protection then?" Truth would have answered from Rodney and from Howe, who sent the combined fleets of France and Spain to the bottom of

1 Afterwards General Lord Hutchinson, who succeeded Abercrombie in Egypt.

the sea. Ireland would have answered, ten years before, from her glorious Protestant Volunteers. Francis Hutchinson said, "We found it in the support of three millions of our fellow-citizens, in the spirit of our national character, in the virtue of our Catholic brethren."

The burning eloquence of the House was all on the side of emancipation, but it was based as usual upon illusion. There was no longer Fitzgibbon to show folly its proper figure. The defence of truth and common sense was left to less articulate advocates. General Cunningham said it was as plain as any proposition in Euclid that to give the franchise to Catholics implied a Catholic Parliament, and that a Catholic Parliament meant a revolution.” The Catholic Committee offered pledges on dangerous subjects. They renounced all claim to the forefeited estates. They promised that they would not meddle with the Protestant Establishment. Mr. Ogle, of Wexford, pointed out that such engagements would bind none but those who made them. The Catholics must become supreme in the State by mere weight of numbers, and when the power was in their hands it was idle to suppose that they would not use it in their own interest. "The House had heard much," said Mr. Pery, "of the enlightened liberality of the timewhat was it but a wild democratic spirit aiming at universal impossible equality?" 1

1 "Sir Boyle Roche was the buffoon of the Conservative party. He amused the House with analyzing the signatures to the Catholic petition. The first name was that of Mr. Edward Byrne, one of the largest merchants in Dublin, who paid 100,000l. a year to the revenue. Roche described him as "a sugar baker, seller of wine and other commodities." Keogh, the Committee's ambassador to Pitt, he called "a retailer of poplins in Dame Street." In this not eminently wise spirit he went through the list, and inquired whether a meeting of turbulent shopkeepers and shoplifters, a

The House refused to receive the Catholic petition by 208 voices to 23, so heavy was the preponderance of opinion against granting political power to a body whom the nature of things forbade to be other than their enemies. Langrishe's Bill was passed unwillingly to please the English Cabinet, but the friends of order in Ireland flattered themselves that they had heard now the last of concession, and Charles Sheridan gave a definition of Protestant ascendancy which was universally accepted, and which the immense majority of the members declared themselves determined to uphold. "By Protestant ascendancy he meant a Protestant King, to whom only, being Protestant, they owed allegiance; a Protestant House of Peers, composed of Protestant Lords Spiritual in Protestant succession; of Protestant Lords Temporal with Protestant inheritance; and a Protestant House of Commons elected by Protestant constituents, a Protestant legislature, a Protestant judiciary, a Protestant executive, in all and each of their varieties, degrees, and gradations."

Three days after the Bill had been read the last time, the House of Commons itself, the building which had witnessed Grattan's triumph, and "for beauty had been the admiration of Europe," was burnt to the ground. The session in consequence came to a premature end, and closed in the middle of April. Before the curtain fell there was a mock-heroic passage at arms with the United Irishmen. Napper Tandy, not liking the language in which the society and himself had been spoken of, sent Toler, the Solicitor

repetition of the tarring and feathering committee of 1784, was to be taken as a representation of the Catholic nobility and gentry of Ireland." — Irish Debates, February 1792.

General, a challenge. The Irish laws of honor allowed a gentleman to refuse such invitations from a tradesman. Toler brought the letter before the House, and an officer was sent to arrest the offender and bring him to the bar for breach of privilege. Napper slipped through a window and escaped. The society was on its trial. To show the white feather would be fatal. Tone, who had been watching over its progress, himself keeping in the background, saw the moment come when he must act. He consulted Hamilton Rowan, a young hot-blooded associate who had become lately a member. They extemporized an irregular meeting. Rowan took the chair, with Tone for secretary. They passed a resolution that the House of Commons had treated them "with insolence," printed five thousand copies of it, which they sent flying through the country, with their names attached, and they gave notice that if they were again interfered with they would challenge the Speaker. In other countries such proceedings would have passed for idle bombast. In Ireland Tone and Rowan became the heroes of the hour. As the session approached its end Napper, too, appeared to challenge martyrdom when it would be unattended with inconvenience. The authority of the House would determine with the prorogation. On the last day he was seen strutting through the streets towards College Green, intending to present himself to the House. He was encountered by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and was brought to the bar, Tone and Rowan sitting conspicuous in the uniform of the Whig Club in the front of the gallery. At the motion of the AttorneyGeneral, Napper was committed to Newgate, to which he was escorted by an adoring crowd. His imprison